Police Brutality

By
Law Offices of Paul D. Petruzzi PA
|February 25, 2015

Police brutality has become a trending topic lately, and Broward County
law enforcement is no exception.

Nine year veteran Fort Lauderdale police officer Victor Ramirez was shown
in a YouTube video pushing a homeless man to the ground and slapping him
at a Broward bus station on Sunday. On Monday, a Broward sheriff’s
detention deputy, Christopher Johnson, was seen in a cell phone video
shot by a courthouse blogger dragging a screaming woman down a courthouse
hallway by her leg shackles. According to the Miami Herald,

It’s been a tough couple of days for Broward law enforcement agencies
whose officers were caught on video in two violent physical confrontations
with subjects in custody.

“Relax. I am telling you right now what’s going to happen,”
Ramirez tells Laclair, wearing gray sweats and sitting on the ground.
“I’m escorting you out right now. You are not going to go
pee. You are not supposed to be here.”

The officer tells Laclair to get up and then is seen slapping him in the
face. Laclair falls over.

Laclair reportedly was taken to jail on trespassing charges, but was released
Monday night. Fort Lauderdale attorney Steve Rossi said Laclair retained
him on Tuesday.

“For now, I’m not charging him anything,” Rossi said.
“I just want to find out what’s going on. I’m just collecting
the info. I want to see if there are any other videos out there. I want
to see what the state attorney is going to do on this.”

“I’m p----d off,” Laclair told reporters. “Most
of the police officers are very reasonable, good people. They just have
a job to do. This guy, I don’t know what his problem is.”

At a news conference Tuesday at Fort Lauderdale police headquarters, City
Manager Lee Feldman called the video “clearly disturbing”
and “not representative” of the 515-member police force.

“We are committed to doing the right thing — not just by the
city but the entire community,” Feldman said.

In the other incident Monday at the Broward courthouse, Johnson attempted
to take Dasyl Rios to jail, reportedly for being loud and disruptive during
a competency hearing. In a cellphone video shot by attorney Bill Gelin,
a courthouse blogger, Rios is seen being dragged by the shackles on her
ankles and yelling, “You’re hurting me. You’re [expletive]
hurting me. Stop. You don’t give nobody a chance. All I wanted to
do was sob for a few minutes, cry. That’s all I wanted to do was
cry for a few minutes because my life is in your hands.”

Witnesses said Rios was sitting on a bench outside the courtroom weeping
when the deputy yelled at her, grabbed her by the feet, and dragged her
down the hallway. Several other deputies surrounded them, and Rios pleaded
with them not to take her back to jail.

In a statement, Sheriff Scott Israel said, “I am concerned by the
way the deputy handled this situation because there were other courses
of action he could have taken.” He promised a “complete and
comprehensive” investigation.

In an interview with CBS4, Rios’ mother, Sylvia Rios, described how
her daughter begged her for help as she was being dragged away.

“It’s just the most horrible feeling,” Sylvia Rios said.
“You’re helpless. At that moment, I lost all my faith in the
judicial system.”

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